Well, it has been a very busy summer. Been dividing my time between photography projects, weddings, rock climbing & travel, web development, and our urban homestead [which we like to call "InStead"].

It is time, however, to focus on the business, and as such I have gotten myself a mentor. Ethan Jewett, a good friend and wonderful talent has agreed to take me under his wing. This will definitely keep me busy for a while. I think I’m already booked solid for the week! I’m very excited and grateful for the tutelage.

My own website is woefully overdue for an overhaul, but in the meantime, I have updated the testimonials page to include some more recent raves, and have uploaded a few more pics to my Flickr page.

I thought I would throw out a bit of eye candy today in the way of slideshow of my images that are part of the PhotoShelter Collection. As posted previously, PhotoShelter is looking to shake up the world of stock photography by putting more control, and more money back into the hands of the photographers. Can’t find fault with that! Now if only some national magazine with deep pockets would actually buy something… enjoy!

*hint: if you want more info on the photo, rolling your cursor over the image will bring up part of the caption. You can also click on the image to get more details, though you may have to enable pop-up windows.

Well, in my effort to think up new ways to make my business effort greener, it occurred to me today to look into finding a green web host. Much to my delight there were several to choose from, each offering various incentives like free software, access to sustainable marketing guides/libraries, planting trees for new customers, multiple/unlimited domains, etc. My favorite after reading through all the options is ThinkHost and I will now be referring anyone who asks to them. I will likewise be moving my own sites to ThinkHost as they come up for renewal. And better still, I can put them all on the same hosting account. Yay!

It’s been a busy month… In the midst of remodeling our own bathroom, I spent a day shooting professionals remodeling the bathroom of a family in need for REACH Community Development. My volunteer assignment came from a dart game at the Lucky Lab a couple months ago. We met several folks who’d just arrived in Portland for their AmeriCorps assignment, and one of them asked if I’d be willing to do some pro bono work on their behalf. Last Thursday I covered two sites, one with a new wheelchair ramp installation, the other a bathroom remodel and living room window replacement.

The guys from Balfor were all very courteous and accommodating. Some were more aware [and wary] of the camera than others, but that is to be expected. The bathroom job turned out to be much more involved than they had anticipated, so I was trying to stay out of the way and just document their work.

Prior to that I designed a logo for Yoga for Weddings… I haven’t done a lot of illustration, but I must admit I am very happy with how this turned out. I started out by sketching in my notepad, then a more refined sketch on bond paper, which I scanned and brought into Illustrator. The rest was all vectors and some transparency layering.

I also did another portrait shoot, this time of a young family–our friends Andy & Amy & their son, Theo. Three people at once proved much more challenging, but there were definitely a few keepers. I did decide it was madness to attempt to do that without an assistant, though. I much prefer working one-on-one or in a documentary fashion.

Now it’s back to our own remodel…